Lately, I’ve made a change in how I present the morning links to you. For years, I got up and tried to get you a link to every single sports story out there in New England that dealt with one of our pro teams, and occasionally college as well. For the last couple of months, on most days, I’ve linked to just what I thought were the ten or so best or most noteworthy stories from that morning.

The feedback that I have received has been positive, as many of you have expressed appreciation at not being subjected to the likes of Shaughnessy, Borges and others on a daily basis, but only when they actually write something worth reading.

But I want to make sure – do you prefer getting just the top stories, or do you like to get everything, and then try to sift the wheat from the chaff yourself?

Vote below, and also please weigh in down in the comment section. This feedback will be of benefit to me as I try and plan the future of BSMW going forward.

I’m hoping to spend some time over the next couple of weeks reviewing the decade that was in the Boston sports media. These episodes aren’t neccesarily the biggest sports moments of the decade (though some are) but more about storylines that impacted the media, or times when the media completely blew something out of proportion.

The recent media blowups over Bill Belichick’s fourth-down decisions and about Randy Moss’ effort this past Sunday are just hiccups compared to some of the episodes we’ve seen this decade.

In addition to media swarms, we’ve seen mass movement of media types across platforms and employers, we’ve had promiment sports media members pass away this decade, and have seen a huge shift in the perspective from which local teams are covered.

Each weekdayhere on BSMW until New Years Eve, we’ll be looking at some of the top storylines/episodes in the Boston sports media from 2000 through 2009.

The Patriots links this morning were pretty extensive, so I didn’t have much of a chance to get to other stuff. The Red Sox wrapped up their regular season yesterday with a 12-7 win over the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park.

It’s not known yet whether the Red Sox and Angels will start their American League Division Series on Wednesday or Thursday, though Thursday seems the more likely scenario. Check all the Red Sox news today over at RedSoxLinks.com.

Now for a little spin around the BSMW Network…

Over on Patriots Daily, we’re still recovering from that Patriots win. Chris Warner files his gut check reactions from the victory.

I’ve gotten some requests for how to follow BSMW on Twitter. (Despite the big box to the right here.) Since Twitter is here to stay, (I’ve had my account there since March of 2007) you might want to get familiar with it. It is more than just simply posting inane messages about where you are or what you’re doing. Used properly, it can be a great source of information and a way to be alerted to breaking news. The search feature on Twitter is also extremly powerful. Using http://search.twitter.com/ or the search box on the main Twitter page allows you to see what people are currently saying about almost any topic. The “trending topics” list is often a way that you can see what news is currently breaking, as thousands of people “Tweet” about it.

If you don’t want to sign up for Twitter, you can either keep up with the posts in the box to the right here, or just by going to the http://www.twitter.com/bruceallen address and seeing what I’ve recently posted.

In a minor surprise, (at least to me) Peter Gammons and Will McDonough are currently the leaders in the All Time Boston Sports Columnists poll, which was posted on Monday.

I had originally not planned on including either one, as they are mostly associated with a single sport, (Gammons on Baseball, McDonough on Football, though he did do a general sports column in the latter part of his career.) but I guess you could say the same about many on the list. Bob Ryan is probably thought of as a basketball writer, etc.

However, it seems that the majority doesn’t agree. While I’ll say that Peter Gammons is right up there among the best (if not THE best) baseball writers in history, and that McDonough was the best football reporter ever, it appears that many are comfortable placing them among the best sports columnists as well.

It was a rocky first inning in a Boston Red Sox uniform for John Smoltz, who gave up four runs on four hits in the frame. On the other side, Jordan Zimmermann, who was born almost a year to the day after Smoltz was drafted by the Detroit Tigers had his way with the Red Sox, as the Nationals posted a 9-3 win in the series finale.

John Tomase says Smoltz should get a mulligan for his first inning as a Red Sox pitcher. Adam Kilgore has Zimmermann outpitching Smoltz on this night. Joe McDonald has Smoltz and the Red Sox liking how the right-hander finished his outing.

Michael Silverman says that despite the first inning, there were a number of promising signs in Smoltz last night. Nick Cafardo says that it might’ve been a tough start for Smoltz, but it’s certainly not the end. Dan Lamothe though, says that Smoltz was an EPIC FAIL last night.

Nationally, Ken Rosenthal says that Smoltz really wasn’t all that bad last night.

Silverman says that pitching depth has put the Red Sox in a good position. McDonald says that Smoltz’s debut last night was another piece of the Red Sox offseason blueprint being put into place.

Chad Finn talks to Dennis Eckersley about his stint in the booth, filling in for Jerry Remy.

Tomase’s notebook has David Ortiz hitting the cleanup spot last night, a spot he might see more of in the future. Kilgore’s notebook has Jonathan Papelbon talking All Star game. McDonald’s Red Sox journal has Ortiz pleased with getting his 1000th career RBI on Wednesday night.

Celtics

The Celtics stood pat last night, not making any trades, and instead just holding onto their one draft pick at #58 overall and using it on University of Tennessee-Martin guard Lester Hudson, who was second in NCAA Div I scoring last season.

Mike Fine says that it was a long night with little to do for Ainge. Steve Bulpett says that it is all about the now for Ainge and the Celtics, who may yet make some moves. Marc J. Spears notes that with the Celtics standing still, there was activity all around them in the Eastern Conference yesterday. Paul Flannery fires off five things we learned about the draft last night.

Dan Shaughnessy says that now is not the time to trade Rajon Rondo. Alan Siegel says that it appears that Rondo is staying put for now. Scott Souza has Ainge saying again that the Celtics are not looking to trade Rondo. Mark Murphy has Doc Rivers saying he has no doubts that Rondo and Ray Allen will be here next season. Murphy has Rondo’s camp miffed over Ainge’s comments on WEEI earlier this week.

Robert Lee thinks that the addition of Shaq to the Cavs might change the Celtics offseason plans. Bulpett has Rivers viewing all the trades made in the East yesterday as no big deal.

Bruins

Kevin Paul Dupont ponders what Phil Kessel might be worth in a trade. Steve Conroy says that there might be a lot of moves made tonight, but don’t count on the Bruins being big players. Bud Barth thinks that it is possible that Kessel might get dealt. Mike Loftus has the Bruins taking a little different approach to the draft this year.

Joseph Gravellese wonders if there is anyone in this draft who can make the Bruins better. Dupont’s notebook has the Bruins looking to move up in the draft. Conroy looks at who could be on the Bruins radar at No. 25.

Misc

Announcement

Finally this morning, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Ken Fang to BSMW. You know Ken from the Friday megalinks, which will still be published here on the front page each week, but in between Ken is going to writing at the new BSMW Fang’s Bites blogeach day.

If you’re familiar with Ken’s blog, you know he tirelessly posts at all hours about all things. This blog will be focused solely on sports media, with a regional emphasis of here in New England. Each day he’s going to bring us sports media links and news, and will provide commentary and analysis of the local sports media. I think he’s going to be a terrific addition to the site. His blog is still a work-in-progress design-wise, but we’re getting there. The focus is on the content for now. Welcome, Ken!

You may have noticed that over the weekend, we flipped the switch on a new site design for Patriots Daily – our blog covering the New England Patriots.

The new design is much more modern, with more images and an easier to navigate interface. The site has also been uncluttered to a large degree, removing many of the items around the site that were just sort of taking up space. This should make the site load quicker. The comment section should be more user-friendly as well, and we’re taking advantage of the ability of the platform to do threaded comments, allowing you to reply directly to a specific comment.

The biggest change you’ll notice is that we can now “Feature” several key columns at the to of the page, rotating them on background images related to each post. Click on the image, and the complete column will load. Below that the rest of the posts are stacked, each with a thumbnail image, giving you an idea of what the post is about.

We give you multiple ways to get all of the content – on the site, via email with the sign up box in the upper right corner, via RSS, and via podcast.

With the NFL draft rapidly approaching, we wanted to get the new design up, and this is really only the first of several changes we’ve got planned this offseason. We’re still working on a plan for content, and would like to increase the posting that takes place on the site on daily basis, and make the site a true discussion destination for Patriots followers.

It’s once again vacation time here at BSMW headquarters. I’ll be heading out for the next couple of weeks, but I’ll be leaving you in the very capable hands of the guest bloggers. Ken, Bob, Brian and TJ will take good care of you over the next two week until I get back.